Refrigerator or ice-box.



' "F. B. HART & T. G. VAN SANT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29. I915.

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REFRIGERATOR OR ICE BOX. APPLICATION FILED ram/29.1915.

Patented Sept. 11, 1917'.

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aaeS'aaZ UNITED STATES PATENT omuon.

FRANK B. HART AND THOMAS G. VAN SANT, 0F P OPLAR BLUFF, MISSOURI.

REFRIGERATOR 0R ICE-BOX.

Application filed May 29, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRANK B. HART and THOMAS G. VAN SANT, citizens ofthe United States, residing at the city of Poplar Bluff, Butler county,State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Refrigerator orIce-Box, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to refrigerators or ice boxes.

An object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator or ice boxincluding a compartment for the ice, having therein a supporting grateor frame for the ice, in combination with a series of pivoted levers ofnovel construction and arrangement upon which said grate or frame ismounted, and a visible indicator under control of said levers forindicating the quantity or the weight of the ice continuously, wherebythe user may at all times be informed of the quantity of ice placedwithin or removed from the compartment.

Another object is to provide an ice box or refrigerator having acompartment for the ice, in combination with mechanism of a novelconstruction and arrangement for producing a permanent record of theamount or quantity of ice within the compartment at all times, so thatat the end of any given period the user will be provided with apermanent record of the ice consumed.

WVith the foregoing and various other objects in view wehave produced adetailed embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which Figure l is a vertical sectional view of an ice boxor refrigerator illustrating a suitable form of the invention embodiedtherein.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation partly in section, illustrating thearrangement of the supporting grate or frame upon which the ice issupported within the ice compartment.

Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view, illustratingin plan a suitablearrangement of the lever devices upon which the ice sup porting grate orframe is mounted; this view being taken on line 83 of Fig. 1.

- Fig. 4 is a front view of the indicator device under control of theice supporting frame or grate for indicating at all times the amount orquantity of ice contained within the ice compartment.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the indicating device illustrating theconnections for op- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 11, 1917.

Serial No. 31,223.

crating the same by the ice support, this view being on the line 55 ofFig. l.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the ice box or refrigerator, illustratinga recording de-. vice under control of the ice support, whereby apermanent record of the quantity of the ice contained within the ice boxduring any definite period of time is made.

Fig. 7 is a front elevation, partly in section, further illustrating theconstruction and arrangement of the mechanism including the recordingdevice.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view, illustrating in plan the arrangement of thelever devices under control of the ice supporting grate or frame,whereby the recording mechanism is operated.

The drawings illustrate an ice box or refrigerator including acompartment 1 for the ice, to which access may be had through a door 2.The ice compartment includes, preferably, a bottom wall 3 provided witha drain passage at for well-understood purposes. The bottom wall 3 ofthe ice com partment is supported below the lower end of the door way 2,so that the mechanism comprising the pivoted levers for supporting theice grate or frame will be entirely below the lower end of the door way.

Within the compartment 1 are placed two transverse supports 5 adjacentto the front and rear walls respectively, and in such position that theywill not obstruct the free discharge ofthe water from said compartmentthrough the outlet or passage 4;. Upon the rear transverse support 5 areplaced the rear ends of a bifurcated lever 6, which come together. andform a union at a point 7, approximately midway between the supports 5and between the front and rear walls of the ice compartment.

An arm 8 rises from the union 7 and then extends substantiallyhorizontally toward the front wall of the ice chamber, the support 5being provided with a space 9 within which the arm 8 is freely movableunder weight of the ice. Another bifurcated lever 10 has the extremitiesof its arms resting upon the support 5, near the front wall of the icechamber, and the arms of said lever are integrally united at an apexunder the rising portion of the arm 8, and the apex of said lever 10 isprovided with an extension which is supported by a link 11 pivotallydepending from said arm 8.

1 front wall of the ice chamber.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 to 5, the indicating device issupported by a portion of the front wall below the door way 2, in suchposition that the same may be conveniently observed at any and alltimes. In the form shown the indicating device includes a casing 12,permanently secured within a proper recess in the front wall portion ofthe ice chamber, below the door way 2. The indicating mechanismcomprises an arbor 13 journaled in hearings in the front and rear wallsof the casing 12 and having a pinion 14 affixed thereto and meshing witha rack 15 which is movable in a guide 16. The lower end of the rack 15is connected to a horizontal element 17 upon each end of which presses aspring 18 of the expansion type. The upper ends of the springs 18 abutagainst and are retained in proper position by disks 19 connected to thelower ends of the screw-rods 20 which are adjustably supported withinthe interiorly threaded projections 21 rigid with the upper wall'portion of the casing. By adjustment of the devices 19-20, the tensionof the springs 18 may be maintained uniform under varying conditions.

The arbor 13 extends through the front wall of the casing and carries anindicator arm 22 which operates adjacent to a graduated scale comprisingnumerals formed upon the face of the front wall of the casing. Thesenumerals constitute the scale by which the weightor quantity of the icewithin the ice chamber is indicated by the position of the indicator arm22 with respect to the numerals forming the scale. The scale andindicator arm 'are protected by a transparent window 23 seated andsupported within the front portion of the casing at a sufficientdistance from ,the indicator arm to permit free operation and movementthereof.

The casing 12 is formed with an extended portion 24 fitted within anopening in the A lever 25 is mounted upon a pivot 26 within theextension 24 and the forward end of said lever is pivotally connected tothe member 17, so that by depressing the inner end of said lever theindicator arm 22 will be operated to indicate the weight or pressureexerted upon the lever 25. The inner end of the lever 25 is pivotallyunited in some suitable manner to the forward end of the arm 8, so thatany weight placed upon or supported by the levers 6 and 10 will beaccurately indicated by the operation of the indicator arm 22.

The grate or frame for supporting the ice is of no vel construction andis combined with the levers 6 and 10 so as to operate and cooperate ina. novel manner. Said grate or frame comprises a suitable base 27 in theform .of a grate, having its rear portion connected to a verticalsupporting member 28 which bears upon the two arms of the lever 6 inproximity to the rear supporting member 5 and its forward portionconnected to a vertical supporting member 29 which bears upon the twoarms of the lever 10 adjacent to the front supporting member By thisarrangement any weight placed upon the supporting base 27 impartspressure to the levers 6 and 10, thus depressing the forward end of thearm 8 and causing the indicating mechanism to operate.

It will be observed that the grate is in substantially the same planewith the lower wall of the door way 2, so that the ice may beconveniently placed upon the grate without obstruction thereby.Furthermore, the operating mechanism is supported by the lower wall ofthe ice chamber, but below the lower .wall of the door way so that theoperating mechanism is completely protected and does not constitute anyobstruction against the placing of ice within or removing the same fromthe ice chamber. In addition the supporting grate 27 with the members 28and 29 are removable, so that they may be taken out of the ice chamberto afford access to the mechanism supported within the ice chamber, orto the upper surface of the bottom wall 3 of the ice chamber,

thus enabling the ice chamber to be kept in proper and clean condition.

While we have illustrated the indicating mechanism supported by thefront wall portion of the ice chamber, it will be understood that it maybe placed in any other convenient position without departing from any ofthe broader principles of the invention.

In, Figs. 6, 7 and 9 we have illustrated .a recording device inconnection with the lever devices which are operated by the ice the samemay be conveniently observed at any time. A recording arm of the usualtype operates upon the disk 30 and produces thereon a continuous recordto indicate at all times the quantity of ice within the ice chamber. Thearm 31 is controlled and moved to different positions in the usualmanner by a lever 33, from the inner end of which depends a draft-link3%, the lower end of the draft-link 34 being pivotall-y connected to alateral extension 35 integral with the forward end of an arm 36. The arm36 is integral with the apex of a bifurcated lever 37. The ends of thearms of the lever 37 bear upon a transversesupport 38. A cooperating,bifurcated lever 39 has the 0X- tremities of its arms bearing upon atransverse support 40, adjacent to the front wall of the ice chamber,and has its apex supported in a link e1 depending from the arm 36, sothat with the exception of providing the lateral extension 35, the leverdevices are constructed and arranged in substantially the same manner asin the construction illustrated and described in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Thegrate or frame 42 is connected to front and rear supports e3 bearingupon the arms of the levers 37 and 89 in the same manner that thesupports 28 and 29 bear upon the arms of the levers 6 and 10. The grateor frame 42 in this embodiment is also in a plane below the lower wallof the door Way opening into the ice chamber, so that the ice may beconveniently placed within or removed from the ice chamber withoutinterference with or obstruction by the supporting devices. This icechamber is also provided with a drain passage 4.4., whereby the waterproduced by the melting of the ice is conducted out of the ice chamber.

While we have illustrated the recording indicating device supported bythe upper portion of the wall, it is obvious that it may be supported inany other convenient position. We have not illustrated the mechanism foroperating the record disk, for the reasons that the illustration thereofis unnecessary, because of the fact that such operating mechanism iswell known and the recording device per 86 is a separate article ofmanufacture and is available in the market, but the adaptation of thesame to our novel operating mechanism constitutes a part of. the presentinvention.

It will also be understood that there may be various modifications andvariations in the construction and arrangement of thevarious parts ofthe device without depart-- ing from the principle and scope of ourinvention. We do not restrict ourselves to specific features, but whatwe claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States,is:

1. In a refrigerator, an ice chamber having a recess in the front wallthereof and an opening from said recess through the front wall, anindicating device supported within said recess, a support in saidopening, a lever pivoted on said support extending into said recess andoperatively connected with the indicating device, levers pivoted withinthe ice chamber near the front and rear sides thereof, respectively, anarm in connection with the rear lever extending toward the front side ofthe ice chamber, a connection between said arm and the lever which ispivoted in said opening, whereby said indicating device is operated bysaid arm, and a filling door hinged to the ice chamber operatingindependently of said indicating device, whereby the indicating devicewill indicate the weight of the ice within said chamber as the ice isplaced in the chamber.

2. In a refrigerator, an ice chamber having a recess in the front wallthereof and an opening from said recess through the front wall, afilling door hinged to said chamber, scale operating levers pivoted inthe bottom of said chamber, an ice supporting grate supported upon saidlevers approximately level with the bottom wall of the door opening,whereby the ice may be readily slipped into or out of the ice chamber,an indicating device inclosed within said recess, a support within saidopening from the recess through the front wall. of the ice chamber, alever pivoted on said support in said opening and extending into saidrecess and into the ice chamber and being connected with the indicatingdevice, and a connection between said lever and said scale operatinglevers, whereby said indicating device will be operated to indicate theweight of the ice being placed within the chamber when said door isopen.

In witness whereof, we have signed this specification in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

FRANK B. HART. THOMAS G. VAN SANT.

Witnesses:

J. O. l/VILLnrr, CHAS. MILLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C.

